emonome

Instead of bullshitting myself with a list of resolutions this year, I’ll give myself some advice so when I come to a point in 2013 where I can’t remind myself who I am supposed to be, or what I’m supposed to be doing, I’ll come back here.

1. Unburden yourself from your regrets. Let them go. They’ll never allow you to be happy. And they are a great recipe for future regrets. They want to be let go and you’re just holding them back to feel sorry for yourself. Don’t be that person.
2. Be hard on yourself when it comes to your art and craft. Be a Jiro of your craft.
3. Trust your instincts. It has not failed you. Trust your gut. It has not failed you. Which leads to…
4. Take on projects that scare you a little. Take on projects even if others may be convinced won’t have an audience. Take on projects that are not topical.
5. You’ve decided to call yourself a storyteller so stop trying to make the profession palatable for others. Most of them won’t know what it means or why storytelling means so much to you, but they’ll get your passion for it. Again, be like Jiro.
6. Listen, your voice in storytelling is emerging – not just my opinion – but you need to be bold, daring, and explore farther. But don’t try to duplicate success of one project with another. It’s stupid. Every project is starting fresh. Every project needs a new set of tools. Make your tools work for you, not the other way around.
7. Remember, people love to be told stories. They’ll pause their lives to give your story a chance. They have a thousand other things they could be doing than be your audience. Be respectful of their time. They need to trust your honesty in telling stories.
8. Remind yourself why you’re in the storytelling business, because circumstances will sometimes make you doubt your existence. You’re doing this because you love to tell stories. Your product has to be very good and a result of your hard work and dedication. You can’t do it because of money, or fame. Although both will tempt you in taking a left on Mediocre Ave. Don’t fall for that shit. Or I’ll have to give you a kick in the ass.
9. Dedication, discipline, and diet. Remember these three things that will make you a better storyteller.
10. About working with people. Most professionals will be horrified by what I’m about to say : be picky about who you work for, work with, or work around. Don’t associate with hacks, phonies, and assholes. However, if you do find yourself in such a position, you and I both agree that the work at hand should still be given 100% and never less. You’ve been good about that. Don’t change.
11. Life experience is a school we can’t quit. Take from it what works for your life and for your work. Discard the rest. Don’t forget there’s a life outside of work that needs to be lived. Take Maurice’s advice, “Live your life, Live your life, Live your life”.

Bonus advice: You’re a good person with a good heart. Don’t let anyone fuck it up. Have a great 2013!

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I’d decided that a glass every hour of my waking hours should suffice. That’s a lot of water. But chances are, I thought, I’d miss a couple of hours here and there and it would still be fine. The ‘You must drink eight gasses of water per day’ rule would still work out somehow. But Scientific American debunked that theory.

Reading that article I’m left with not knowing how many glasses of water I should drink per day. The best I could come up with “Every time I step into the kitchen”.

What would you recommend?

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Few speeches make me want to pick myself up and make a difference in the world I live in. This is one of them. Man’s gone too soon.

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Scanned images of papers – letters, photos, artworks etc. – by Al Hirschfeld digitized by Archives of American Art.

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H.G., in that 1940 interview, credited Orson for increasing sales of one of his “more obscure” titles.

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Understanding China, the blog, wants you to know the real China. For example:

20% of San Francisco’s pollution comes from China.

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A segment from BBC One show Bang Goes the Theory

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Making your first film is always a struggle. If it’s a documentary, triple that! Inspiring story.

- via New Directors/New Films

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Also check out:

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Just watched this and it hurts to just be aware of this.

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While you’re at it, take the BBC’s ‘Spot the Fake Smile’ test.

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ABC reached out to Technorati blogger partners with links to two of their upcoming shows, Once Upon A Time and Charlie’s Angels (both previews). Here’s my short schmeview!

‘Once Upon A Time’ actually makes me want to watch the show. TV previews rarely do. But then again, anything from “the writers of LOST” will pique my interest. As did Jennifer Morrison. :-)

The ‘Charlie’s Angels’ preview, on the other hand, makes me want to do the opposite. I don’t even want to watch the show to see if it’ll be good.

What did you think?

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You had me at ‘Battery’

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Movie website

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An (in)famous moment captured on film (Some say this was staged. And by ‘some’ I mean anonymous commenters on the YouTube – god bless them). There’s, I thought, a lot of man love for each other displayed in this fight. But that’s just me her.

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His JerrySeinfeld.com launches in two days.

via NY Times

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The Hot Docs Festival in Toronto is mid way through. I’ll admit that I’ve only found out about this festival yesterday and that’s a shame. The lineup of docs in this festival is amazing. The following stood out as I went alphabetically. It’s not possible to check all of them out now. I’ll get back to them later.

I’ve done a similar post on music docs for my Guitarkadia blog.

This one looks good although I wonder why the main subject is speaking in Hindi. I know you folks won’t give a shit since you’d care less for the difference but if the main character is not Bengali then the title doesn’t make a lot of sense. The film, however, I’d watch because you can’t make this shit up. No wonder Fox Searchlight is doing a remake. Yes, so I learned that Rajesh Ji (the main character) is actually Bihari. Does it matter?

A year inside an Intercontinental airport, the filmmaker captured what goes on inside. Although ending the trailer with that sound is a little hokey, unless it really happened.

Hell and Back Again clip from Danfung Dennis on Vimeo.

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Ended up watching coupla more movies than the ones mentioned in the previous list. Rewatched Days of Heaven (again!!), Badlands. Caught up on some TV: HOUSE.

This week’s pretty strong. Out of the 9 movies I picked up from the library, 5 are by Hitchcock!! 1 Tarkovksy, and 1 Tony Richardson (recommended by a friend on Facebook), and then there’s Black Narcissus. The last one is Rock N’ Roll 25th anniversary Hall of Fame concert DVD from last year.

I’d like to say I’ve watched 95% of Hitchcock films over the years, a number of them several times, but percentages can be pulled out of the ass. Re-watching these with the purpose of studying visual storytelling and blocking (I’ve tried watching movies with sound turned off but can’t bear it after a while). Shots in his movies are masterfully set up and have precise camera moves although they rarely, if ever, attract attention to themselves.

1. Technically it’s 9 Hitchcock films if I count all the contents of the first DVD:  The Early Years of the Master of Suspense, which has – The Manxman, Murder!, Rich and Strange, The Ring, and The Skin Game.

2. North By Northwest. Cinematographer: Robert Burks (shot 12 Hitchcock films, started when he was 19, died in a house fire at 58).

I can not mention George Tomasini, editor of 9 Hitchcock films (some of his best), who was born on 1909 – the same year as Burks.

3. Vertigo. Cinematography: Robert Burks

4. The Lady Vanishes: No trailer. Cinematography: Jack E. Cox

5. The Wrong Man. Cinematography: Robert Burks

6. Black Narcissus: I think I tried to watch this many years ago but never got to. Cinematographer: The great Jack Cardiff.

7. The Sacrifice. Cinematographer: The great Sven Nykvist.

8. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. Cinematographer: Walter Lassally (shot 104 films, so far, won Oscar for Zorba the Greek, and published the book, Itinerant Cameraman)

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Before there was the Zacuto Shootout, Cinematographers on both sides of the pond did a series of camera assessment tests. The goal was to compare performances of film and digital cameras and screen it for the industry peeps. I don’t think the results were released to the public, besides this ASC article, as it would’ve been nice to see them. Of course this was a few months before the 5D Mark II came out and changed the game. I don’t think anyone had any idea how Cinematography landscape would change in less than two years.

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Was up at 5:30 this morning…just because. This totally made it worthwhile. It’s 18 minutes and worth watching the whole thing but if it’s just Trump roast you’re interested in, skip to 9:30.

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‘Something Left, Something Taken’ is a 10-minute short by Tiny Inventions, made up of Brooklyn-based duo, Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata. After the movie, if you’re left wondering “how’d they do that?”, Max and Ru’s excellent video for Red Giant TV will make you happy. And if that’s not enough, their blog has even more coolness to spare.

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